An op-ed authored by the UK's and Germany's foreign ministers in The Sunday Times [archive.is] criticized Israel's "indiscriminate" attacks on civilians in Gaza and called for a "sustainable" ceasefire there. "The sooner it comes, the better — the need is urgent," wrote David Cameron and Annalena Baerbock, though they sought to avoid directly contradicting the official line against an immediate ceasefire.
They have a right to eliminate the threat posed by Hamas. But too many civilians have been killed. The Israeli government should do more to discriminate sufficiently between terrorists and civilians, ensuring its campaign targets Hamas leaders and operatives.
Second, we must get more aid to ordinary Palestinians. It breaks our hearts to see children in the rubble of their destroyed homes, not knowing where to find food or water, not knowing where their parents are. We have both, therefore, increased our funding for humanitarian aid to Gaza, getting life-saving supplies to those in desperate need.
The UK's just-retired defense minister, Ben Wallace, penned an attack on Benjamin Netanyahu in The Daily Telegraph, as close to a paper of record as the current government has.
I am sure that the shame Benjamin Netanyahu feels for not foreseeing the October 7 attacks is deep, especially for someone who presented himself as a security hawk and tough guy. But perhaps that shame is driving him to lose sight of the long term.
Netanyahu's mistake was to miss the attack in the first place. But if he thinks a killing rage will rectify matters, then he is very wrong. His methods will not solve this problem. In fact, I believe his tactics will fuel the conflict for another 50 years. His actions are radicalising Muslim youth across the globe.
When all this is over, and the IDF withdraws from what is left of Gaza, there will still be Hamas. All the action will have achieved is the extinction, not of the extremists, but the voice of the moderate Palestinians who do want a two-state solution.
Ambigously unsupportive letters from Britain are surely to be expected. Germany signing them, not so much.
